VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Story claiming EU Socialist Party official to “meddle more aggressively in PH” misleading

AUTHOR

VERA FILES

DATE

April 25, 2018

SHARE

A goodnewsnetworkph.com story published April 21 about Party of European Socialists (PES) deputy secretary general Giacomo Filibeck planning to become "more aggressive in interfering with the country's affairs” is misleading.

Its headline, "Video: Foreigner Giamoco (sic) Filibeck will become more aggressive in meddling with how the Philippines is run," does not match any quote found in the story’s content – an April 20 news report from ABS-CBN’s Bandila. The video report was downloaded from ABS-CBN’s official Youtube channel and uploaded on the website.

Filibeck said his deportation has pushed the PES to “(go) further (in) denouncing” the human rights situation in the country. Filibeck was denied entry into the country on April 15 after being placed on the Bureau of Immigration’s blacklist for participating in “partisan political activity” last year.

In the same ABS-CBN video, it was not Filibeck that Malacañang condemned for “meddling” in the country’s affairs but the European Parliament, which issued a resolution on April 20 calling for an end to extrajudicial killings in the war on drugs.

The website was created in November 2017. The biggest traffic generators on social media are Mocha Uson Blog, President Rody Duterte Facebook Army and Team Duterte for Federalism, and could have reached more than 6.6 million people.